Kostas Papageorgiou (; born 1 January 1941) is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as striker.

Club career

Papageorgiou started his football career in 1956, at the age of 15, when following the footsteps of his father, he enrolled in the infrastructure departments of Panathinaikos. He immediately attracted the attention and interest of the then coach,

Svetislav Glišović Svetislav Glišović (Serbian Cyrillic: Светислав Глишовић; 17 September 1913 – 10 March 1988) was a Yugoslav international football player and manager. Club career Glišović played in the youth team of SK Soko before beco ...

, who recognized his talent at a sight. As a member of the reserve teams of the "greens" he performed excellently, playing as striker and scoring massively. After the first year of staying in the 3rd team, he was promoted for the next two years to the 2nd team and under János Zsolnai, he was promoted to the first team. He competed in three friendly matches against Wiener, Fostiras and

Egaleo Aigaleo or Egaleo ( ) is a town and a suburban municipality in the western part of the Athens urban area, belonging to the West Athens regional administrative unit. It takes its name from Mount Aigaleo, whose name comes from the words αίγα/a ...

, leaving excellent impressions with his performances. However, the management of the club sidelined Papageorgiou, without giving him further opportunities to participate in matches. At the time, the 18-year-old forward was working in the morning hours and attending classes in the last class of the night eight-class then Gymnasium. In July 1959, disappointed by the treatment he received from Panathinaikos, he left the "greens" and joined Atromitos, who were competing in the Athens FCA Championship at the time and immediately after in the newly formed second division. His appearances with the club from

Peristeri Peristeri (Greek language, Greek: Περιστέρι, meaning "pigeon/dove" in Greek) is a city and a suburban municipality in the western part of the Athens#Athens Urban Area, Athens agglomeration, Greece. With 133,630 inhabitants (2021 census), ...

attracted the interest of

AEK Athens A.E.K. (; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica. The club is more commonly known in European competitions as A.E.K. Athens. Establishe ...

, who signed him up in the summer of 1963, for 200,000

drachmas Drachma may refer to: * Ancient drachma, an ancient Greek currency * Modern drachma, a modern Greek currency (1833...2002) * Cretan drachma, currency of the former Cretan State * Drachma proctocomys, moth species, the only species in the Genus '' ...

. With the yellow-blacks he had an active participation, but the competition for a place in the team's offense was very tough. On 1 March 1964 he scored a hat-trick in the 4–0 home win against Olympiacos Chalkida. On 4 April 1965 he scored all four goals of his team, in a 4–0 win against Athninaikos at home. Three days later, he scored at the derby against

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

, where AEK won by 1–2 with a comeback, at

Karaiskakis Stadium The Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium (), commonly referred to as the Karaiskakis Stadium (, ), is a Association football, football stadium in Piraeus, Attica, Greece, and the home ground of the Piraeus football club Olympiacos F.C., Olympiacos. It i ...

. On 13 June 1965 he scored 4 of the 5 goals in the 5–0 home win against Niki Volos. He scored a brace in a dramatic 3–3 draw against Olympiacos in

Nea Filadelfeia Nea Filadelfeia (, meaning ''New Philadelphia'') is a suburban town in the Athens agglomeration, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it has been part of Nea Filadelfeia-Nea Chalkidona municipality of Central Athens regional unit, o ...

. On 30 January 1966 he scored the winner in the final minutes in an away win against Egaleo. He scored the winner against

FK Vardar FK Vardar () is a professional Association football, football club based in Skopje, North Macedonia, which competes in the Macedonian First Football League, Macedonian First League. They are the most successful football club in Football in Maced ...

at home for the

Balkans Cup The Balkans Cup was an international football competition for clubs from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia. It was introduced in 1961 and was very popular in the 1960s (the 1967 final attracted 42,000 spectators), being ...

on 19 April 1967, in a season that they went udefeated, losing only in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

by Fenerbahçe. On 14 July 1968 he scored the only goal of his team shaping the final 2–1 away from home against Olympiacos, for the semi-finals of the

Cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

. On 18 September 1968 he scored his only goal for the

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

competitions in a 3–0 home win against

Jeunesse Esch Jeunesse Esch (full name ''Association Sportive la Jeunesse d'Esch/Alzette'') is a professional football club based in Esch-sur-Alzette, in south-western Luxembourg. The side play in the National Division, the highest league in the country, and ...

, contributing to the club's course to the

quarter-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

of the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

. With AEK he won the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

, as well as two Cups. The limited number of permitted substitutions at that time and the presence of star players in the then yellow–black offensive line did not allow him to make more participations. In 1969 as a part of renewall of Branko Stanković in the club's roster, he left AEK, a departure for which he has repeatedly expressed his displeasure. He signed at the neighboring

Apollon Athens Apollon Smyrnis Football Club () is a professional football club based in Athens, Greece, which competes in the Athens FCA first division. It is part of GS Apollon Smyrnis (Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Απόλλων Σμύρνης), ...

, where he competed in the second division and won it at the end of the season, creating a record for the division, by scoring 41 league goals in a season. He played at the club until 1974, when he retired at the age of 33.

Personal life

On 4 September 2021 Papageorgiou donated the jersey he wore on 20 June 1968 in the match against Iraklis, in the last match of Jenő Csaknády at the bench of AEK Athens, to the then under-construction History museum of AEK Athens in the

Agia Sophia Stadium The Agia Sophia Stadium (), also known as OPAP Arena for sponsorship reasons and as AEK Arena for UEFA competitions, is the home stadium of AEK Athens. With an all-seater capacity of 32,500 it is the third largest football stadium overall in Gre ...

. He visited the museum with his son, Giannis and wore the same jersey again.

Honours

Atomitos * Athens FCA Championship: 1961–62 AEK Athens *

Alpha Ethniki The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

: 1967–68 *

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

: 1963–64, 1965–66 Apollon Athens *

Beta Ethniki The Football League () was the second highest professional football league in Greece since its inception in 1962 as ''Beta Ethniki'' and until 2019. It then served as a third tier after the creation of the Super League 2 as the new second tier ...

: 1969–70, 1972–73 Individual *Beta Ethniki top scorer: 1969–70

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Papageorgiou, Kostas 1941 births Living people Super League Greece players Panathinaikos F.C. players Atromitos F.C. players AEK Athens F.C. players Apollon Smyrnis F.C. players Men's association football forwards Footballers from Athens Greek men's footballers 20th-century Greek sportsmen